612 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1035 



acids, and of the process of their disintegra- 

 tion. Eeading these chapters, one can not 

 help being impressed by the complexity of the 

 mechanism which controls the catabolism of 

 nucleic acids. There have been described in 

 the animal organism at least a dozen agents 

 (enzymes) taking part in the work of the 

 destruction of nucleic acids. Undoubtedly 

 more will be discovered. Each of the known 

 enzymes is capable of inducing only one re- 

 action, of performing only one phase in the 

 general process. 



The reading of these chapters is instructive, 

 not only for the information contained in them, 

 but as an illustration of the means employed 

 by the animal organism in order to bring 

 about a very gradual transformation of the 

 complex tissue components into simpler deriv- 

 atives. How great must be the number of 

 enzymes residing in animal tissues if more 

 than a dozen are required for the catabolism 

 of only one tissue component! 



P. A. Levene 



STANDABDIZATION OF COUESES AND 

 GBADES 



The following regulations were adopted for 

 the guidance of the faculty at a recent meet- 

 ing of the president's council of the George 

 Washington University: 



To the President's Council: Tlie Committee on 

 Standardizing Grades appointed last June begs 

 leave to submit suggestions upon the following 

 two problems: 



1. How can the amount of work required for 

 each unit of credit be approximately equalized in 

 the various courses? 



2. What common standard of grading can the 

 various members of the faculty observe so that they 

 will all grade approximately on the same standard? 



In submitting principles and standards for the 

 solution of these problems the committee wishes 

 first of all to be understood that it does not wish 

 to dictate, or even to suggest, how any member of 

 the faculty should do his work. It not only has no 

 intention of curtailing the legitimate rights and 

 freedom of any teacher, but it desires especially 

 to emphasize that these rights and freedom are sa- 

 cred; that they are an indispensable condition for 

 the best type of university work. 



But in schools, colleges and universities the per- 



sonal side is not the only side to teaching. There 

 is present also a social side which grows out of the 

 fact that a school is in some fundamental aspects 

 a social unit. The various members of the faculty 

 are all working to contribute in piecemeal to the 

 same end. They are all contributing to the 

 rounded education of individuals, and to the ex- 

 tent that social relationships are involved in this 

 process to that extent is it necessary to observe 

 similar standards and principles. When this is not 

 done the equilibrium and the efficient working of 

 the whole is disturbed. Students in considerable 

 number will elect those courses in which they can 

 get the largest number of credits or the highest 

 grades, or both, for the least work, and they will 

 shun those courses in which the opposite is true. 



But in observing similar standards and principles 

 in those matters that pertain to the school, as a 

 whole, it would seem that no desirable aspect of the 

 personal freedom of the teacher needs to be vio- 

 lated. A common goal only needs to be recognized, 

 the manner of reaching the goal being left to the 

 individual teacher. We have here an example of 

 the type of liberty within law that obtains else- 

 where in society. 



Equalization of Units 



It appears to be true that the amount of work 

 required of students in different courses carrying 

 equal amounts of credit varies greatly. While in 

 some courses little more than attendance upon lec- 

 tures and the passing of examinations is re- 

 quired, in others from one to three or even four 

 hours of outside preparation for each lesson is re- 

 quired in addition. To minimize this divergence 

 the committee recommends: 



(o) That all teachers strive to require about 

 two hours of outside preparation for each lesson. 



(6) That courses which are now so weighted that 

 they can not be completed with this amount of 

 study be readjusted so that they can ordinarily be 

 completed with two hours of preparation for each 

 lesson. 



(c) That lecture courses in connection with 

 which it is impossible or undesirable to assign any 

 considerable amount of outside work carry one 

 half as many credits as the number of lectures per 

 week. 



Distriiution- of Grades 



Considered from the social standpoint, the col- 

 lege, in common with other schools, performs two 

 interrelated, although distinguishable fundamental 

 functions. It (1) educates and it (2) selects. 



